Bees - Pesticide

I lost one of my colonies a few weeks back. One day they were out in force, foraging. Four days later when it was sunny again they were coming out and 'crash landing' on the floor and dying or crawling around outside the hive entrance. Since then there have been no bees flying and a quick look inside through a glass top board only revealed a few bees wandering on the top bars. It looks to me like pesticide poisoning. My other hive appears to be functioning happily.

My question is how to I go about sanitising the dead hive. I guess I am going to have to strip all the frames. If I do this I would run a blowtorch over all the internals. I assume I will have to wash everything but not sure what to wash with.

A friend had a hive collapse through starvation a couple of weeks ago - due to the mild weather the bees have been out foraging much earlier than usual, and there hasn't been any nectar for them. Why one should collapse, and the other 6 not, who knows :/

Could you wash with Virkon and leave it to dry really well before reintroducing a new colony?

I haven't opened it up to check for stores but they were very well stocked before the winter and had been foraging quite a bit. They look disorientated, they would take off from the entrance and then just 'bomb'. Others were just wandering aimlessly around the outside of the hive. I have had a hive collapse due to insufficient stores and they tend to cluster and die with their heads inside cells as if they are licking out the last dregs of honey.

I used to keep bees some time back at my parents until they moved and had very little problem. I started up again about 3 or 4 years ago and have had nothing but problems. Getting a little disheartened now.

I opened up the dead hive about two weeks ago and brushed out the few dead bees that were left inside and was planning to take it home for a complete strip down and clean. However, those plans were scuppered when a swarm moved in two days later.

I have since checked and the queen is laying well and they are showing no signs of ill health, they are very active and seem to fly in cooler weather when my other bees stay tucked up in bed. They are also very docile.

In our paper this morning that they have found proof that pesticides containing nicotinoids ( used for spraying oil seed rape among others) are directly responsable for the huge decline in wild bee populations. More than any other reason. They stay in the plant and the bees bringing food back to the hive are poisoning the future generation.

In our paper this morning that they have found proof that pesticides containing nicotinoids ( used for spraying oil seed rape among others) are directly responsable for the huge decline in wild bee populations. More than any other reason. They stay in the plant and the bees bringing food back to the hive are poisoning the future generation.